Back to School with Akali Phula Singh ji, again...

Well, technically I am decieving my readers with the title but I am going back to school, not my university though but my old high school. My sister invited me to introduce her music class to tabla. Her teacher loves tabla and probably had something to do with this as well. So here I am waking up the good old tabla muscles who were in hibernation for 2 years!

So what does Akali Phula Singh ji have to do with this? Well, it just so happens that I was painting another version of him. The old one reminded me too much of Baba Deep Singh, it did not have that nihang look, you know the one you'll see in wars, the one that says "Come any closer and chop I'll your God d*** head off!" hahaha. Well, I was able to show that look in this new piece. I used my Crysis Turbanhead to start me off on the basic pose, and then I worked from there. Maybe, I can continue to work o nthe old one as Baba Deep Singh ji...

Mutants: Balbir Kaur

If you thought all my mutants were male then meet Balbir Kaur, a devout Sikh, the manipulator of one of the most abundant substance on the planet. The substance which made life possible. The substance with the formula H2O. I cannot continue to grind this anymore, its water!

Balbir can manipulate water at will, controlling the individual molecules as if playing with marbles. It is not quite understood how she can do this but it was theorized that these types of abilities result as an interaction of brain waves with the environment and self. The fact, that she can control water makes her deadly but the fact that she can (with a limit) get past the brain waves of other people and mutants, makes her one of the few mutants who are able to achieve an instant kill. How? She can crush the brain of her opponent with the blink of an eye. *300 music playing* She looks very innocent though, and she is. She would never do such a thing, would she?

Other than destroying brain cells, she commonly uses her "talwar-e-pani" or water swords to cut through the most toughest materials. She is a skilled martial artist, and teaches gatka later on in life. She derives the technique for manipulating water greatly from this martial arts and strict meditation. Lastly, the air surrounding Balbir, becomes very humid. She currently has no control over this "automatic" side effect, other than "manually" dispelling the water molecules in the air.

Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur

Mai Bhago, whose full name was actually Bhag Kaur or Mata (mother) Bhag Kaur, with respect, was one of the most revered warriors of Sikh history. The title "Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur" of my next WIP {BTW, this means Work In Progress(and BTW, BTW means By The Way)}, is meant to connect Mai Bhago with Kaur. I think the second name, Kaur, is very important when saying her name, Mata Bhag Kaur. Why? Well, its an important part of our history. The names Kaur, and Singh (as well), tore us away from the castes and lineages we were stuck with! The fact that we fell in the same hole we were saved out of, is a whole different story.

Anyway, why should Mai Bhago be called Mata Bhag Kaur? Well, we have Baba Deep Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur, Sahibzada Ajit Singh, and so many other Singhs but we have a Kaur of that time, who, we do not call by the name, Kaur. Why? Weird, isn't it? I think so...

My next WIP is actually my first digital painting on Sikh history that I began at the beginning... of the year. I had done many paintings on Sikh history before this, but those were on bristol boards and canvases. Many were imitations of Sobha Singh's, Kirpal Singh's and Mehar Singh's works. I used to add in my own elements for fun! That was a good learning experience for me. It got me started on Sikh history, however, I didn't have the same feel for Sikh history as I do now! Then I did not research beyond the small, thin paperbacks I found in gurudwaras. It was Sarbloh Warriors, which required me to research for concepts. I didn't take it seriously then, but I really dug into it when I worked on Sahibzada Ajit Singh.

This WIP of mine started with a really good concept, with good composition and with a nice setup. However, as I worked on it, it started to become into something completely different. In fact, it didn't have the same emotion as the first one. Whereas, the first one was a woman charging, the newly developed piece was literally a stroll through the park... err... without the park. Here, see for yourself.
This is Stage Four of the WIP...

...and this is Stage Nine! (I decided to finish this painting, as well as going back to the Stage Four and working on that as Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur.)This is Stage Five of Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur. For some reason it reminds me of Batman - The Dark Knight...

Sikhi Art on SALE! Baba Deep Singh

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Sikhi Art on SALE!

Apparently, DeviantArt is having a sale! Everything is at least 20% off!
Take advantage of this! Sale ends December 15th.

For slightly more expensive but diverse framing options visit Imagekind.

Mata Bhag Kaur was my first piece of work on Sikh history. She lead an army of Sikhs in the Battle of Muktsar.

Balance

I think balance in the key here to get some studying done, in my case. With a wicked painting developing so fast, who wants to study? Well, I DO but I can't. I am going through that "I want to paint! I want to study!" stage again. But this a bad time to be going through that, exams will begin in three days! Now I know why putting each foot in a different boat doesn't work out... I am going to try to do both studying and painting, back and forth. That way I'll get both done rather than nothing!
I have put more effort into developing the "Banda Singh - Battle Charge" painting; yes that's the name now. I didn't like his hellboy style beard, so I gave it some length. I wanted him to wear a helmet like both his paintings I drew inspiration from, so I added one in. I noticed the clouds were... terrible, so I fixed them; still working on that. I added a few more mughals in the back. Also, added some smoke (orignally a bad looking cloud) from explosions, perhaps.
These paintings aren't going to be black and white. I will be colouring them. I find I have more control over greyscale rather than colour. This stems from everything I did when I was younger. All my sketches were greyscale. When I made the mistake of colouring them, I would ruin the sketch! Anyway, I wanted to see this painting in colour so, I did a colour study, to see how the colours would workout, I think I like it. I am glad I didn't ruin the sketch!

Exams have arrived! WOOT!

Yes that's right. It is the end of the semester, which means exams, which also means a break afterwards... which means more time to paint!! WOOT!!

So ya exams are here but does that stop me from painting even when I should be studying? Heck no! =D But I did stop painting. I am going to study as much as possible for the exams, next week. My plan to ace those exams (yeah right!), and finish Battle of Chamkaur and Baba Deep Singh during the Christmas break. I am thinking about getting the Print Account for DeviantArt. DeviantArt allows me to sell mugs, puzzles, postcards as well as the usual Photo Prints and Canvas Prints (but with little option for frames). I think puzzles would be really cool!! Anyway, if anyone knows of a better service, could you please let me know? I could sign up for that instead.

Banda Singh Bahadur, I think he's one of the most interesting people from Sikh history along with our Gurus. While being tortured,
"Mohammed Amin Khan, who was standing near, spoke as follows: "From your manner so far you appear to be a man of virtue, who believes in God, and in doing good deeds. You are also very intelligent. Can you tell me why you are having to suffer all this here ?" Banda's reply was, "When the tyrants oppress their subjects to the limit, then God sends men like me on this earth to mete out punishment to them. But being human, we sometimes overstep the laws of justice, and for that we are made to pay whilst we are still here. God is not being unjust to me in any way." (Wikipedia)

After reading about him, I immediately wanted to paint him again. The first time I painted him was like 4-6 years ago, where I had copied that famous painting of his (I think he is sitting in the Bir Asan in that one). If you don't know what I am talking about, here Banda Singh. So yeah, I wanted to paint him again but in my own way, in my own setting! I had done a few sketches before but didn't think they were good enough for him.

I sat down earlier this week and began to work. The funny thing is I sat down to paint another Battle of Chamkaur scene but with a Singhni. Was there a Singhni with the Singhs at that time? I don't know but that painting turned into Banda Singh Bahadur! Oddly, when I decided to forget Singhni admist of Singhs in Chamkuar, I switched to Bhai Bota Singh and Bhai Garja Singh. These two brave fellows took on 800 Mughals horsemen!!! Let me emphasize the taking on the 800 Mughals with taking them on with just lathis, which are wooden staffs!!! By now you probably know that, they will be next ;)!

So how Bhai Bota Singh and Bhai Garja Singh turned into Banda Singh Bahadur? Well, they didn't fight on horsebacks, they were on foot. What I had was two Singhs on horsebacks, wearing shawls and a kachere! Then out of nowhere Banda Singh appeared in my mind, the sitting pose and the one on the horse. I immediately started to make changes...

What is cool about this painting (it is still a WIP) is that I did most of it very quickly from the sketch. My brushstrokes are much more controlled now, and I am able to get much more done with fewer ones. I have also been blending quite a bit. My skies are also getting better. All in all, I can see my self improving. (This is all on the computer BTW)

The madness has ended!

... The madness had ended... um... ya... that's pretty much it. By madness I mean constant heart attacks from all the work with more to come from exams in a couple weeks, and by ended, I mean, ended temporarily! University is a lot of work and I don't know why my brain is in constant denial of that; maybe I should ask Freud...

Ah, that's life though, you gotta love it! It would be quite boring without this overdrive! By the way, I am not much of a writer really (I try hard... lol). The only thing I can write is scientific papers and even those are a big pain in the... ... hand... But I am glad that I got sometime to paint this weekend. I started working on some of the old sketches. I will eventually finish the paintings below. I like to take things slow and steady (which partly explains the constant heart attacks). If you are in my labs you should know that already!

Anyway, I was working on the Battle of Chamkaur series. Here I am trying to depict Guru Gobind Singh ji leaving Anandpur and making his way to Chamkaur di garhi (I think I got that right, it's when he is tricked into leaving the castle). He pulls out a spear and nails down every mughal in his path! So here's the basic idea. I think it feels very chaotic, which is what I want. I hope this feeling stays till the finish, although in art there is no finish, only personal satisfaction.

Other Projects

I pushed aside some projects to make time for painting Sikh history and because I get bored from working on one thing for two long. Here are two WIPs from my fictional fantasy world called Miri Piri. it's something I have been dreaming about ever since I played Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. Note: These are NOT real! I just had to say that because I have had this guy... let's just say he got pissed off at Khalistani Warrior (scroll down the comments to see).

Anyway, I have to say Khalistani Warrior turned out to be one of my most famous pieces judging by the views it got. It was the first painting I did when I got my tablet. Before that I painted with a mouse and it was a huge pain in the... ... hand. My Sarbloh Warriors concept/game art was done completely with mouse. That was how I really got into this digital painting business.

Well, without further delay here is another Khalistani Warrior WIP:

So Khalistan consists of this huge castle surrounded by a few villages, in the middle in Dead Lands and west of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is north of the Southern Dynasty.

Some background storyline I am working on:
"One night, when the Sikhs are celebrating Vaisakhi, the Southern Dynasty with their hordes of infantry, elephants, monkey warriors and Mountain Giants, attack the castle. The Southern Dynasty who was once their closest ally had chose to betray them and besiege their castle. They took over Khalistan, after putting up a small fight with the Sikhs, who had fled north in an attempt to save whatever that was left of their kind. They were met with the Dragons, who were being hunted down by the Undead and the Western Alliance.
The Dragons and Khalistanis joined forces and took back the great Dragon city of Dormgore...
He is now a warrior of the race known as the Dragon Riders."

Talking about Dragon Riders, here is a Dragon Rider WIP:

BTW his sword is the Khanda symbol, with Waheguru (wonderful teacher AKA God) imprinted in it.
Currently, I am working on a comic based on Miri Piri. Depending on how things go, my plan is to release the first issue by the end of August this year but I doubt I'll finish the issue by then since there are currently only two people working on it, including myself. I have pictured it being turned into a game as well, but we'll see how things go.

Sikhi Art

Yay! I have a my own blog. Well, let's get started.

WIPs:

Battle of Chamkaur - depicting Baba Ajit Singh assaulting two Mughal infantry, three, if you count the guy who is being stepped on.

and

Baba Deep Singh - depicting... well, Baba Deep Singh, fighting the Afghans and defending the Golden Temple.


I just have to finish up a few things before these are coloured and finished.

References: God of War 2 wallpaper -for Battle of Chamkaur

Barbarian art from Diablo 3 - Baba Deep Singh